The Little Christmas Tour

Since Lily entered my family, I've adopted several new mottos for life.

Things like "I'll do it tomorrow" or "Just let me take a nap".

But my favorite new motto is "Less is more".

We have downsized our home twice.  We gave up a swimming pool.  We gave up sprawling yards with lots of room to roam.  We gave up space between the neighbors' homes and ours.

All in an effort to live by our new motto.

And we love it!

We have made our lives so much easier by ridding ourselves of so much extra "stuff".

I have now carried the "less is more" mentality into my Christmas decorating.  Just enough to look festive, but not so much that I'm tempted to run screaming into the streets, choked by strings of tiny white lights.

I thought you might like a little peek at our simple but happy decorations so welcome to the first ever Rush Family Home Christmas Tour.  Enjoy!

Here is our lovely tree:

This is actually a tree we borrowed from my parents.  Our tree is much wider around the base than this one.  Since I did not really want to remove all the furniture from my living room just to make space for a Christmas tree, this one works quite nicely.  

And we can still sit on the couch.

These are the very first stockings I bought as a new mom.  One for each member of our little family - Ryan, me and Ryley.  Of course, I didn't plan for the future and when Reagan came along, I realized I didn't have a matching stocking for her.  

I thought Christmas was ruined forever.

When Lily came along, I started using my cute stockings again - one for each daughter.  It makes me very happy to see these hanging.  

This is a shot of my dining room table.  You can't see it so well but I got new Christmas dishes last year from my mother-in-law.  They are incredibly cute with red and white polka dots and I have them sitting on green chargers.  And the best part?  I can use them at other times of the year, too - just not with green chargers.

Ryan thinks having more than one set of dishes is an incredible waste of money.  But I didn't ask him.

Every year since the big girls were born, my parents have given them a special Christmas item.  Ryley gets a nativity and Reagan gets an angel.  I usually display all of them but cut back this year because I'm running out of places to put 17 nativities and 14 angels!  You can't really see them in this picture....

so here's a couple close-ups:

Aren't they sweet?  

Mom has started the tradition with Lily now and she receives a cross every year.

You might notice that I have no pictures of the outside of our house.  That's because this year, outdoor lights didn't make it as part of the decor.  I have a nice wreath on the door and that's it.

And you know what?

Christmas is not ruined. 

You will find plenty of homes decorated more elaborately than mine.  With a bigger tree.  Or multiple trees.  Something festive in every room of the house.  And lights galore outside.

But I'm not sure you'll find a more relaxed and happy family this season.

In the (slightly changed) words of cheerleaders everywhere -

"We've got peace,

Yes we do.

We've got peace,

How 'bout you?"